There Are Two Different "Illegals"

A major left-wing progressive campaign these past few years in Israel, in another effort to besmirch Israel's political and judicial system, is the specific matter of children of foreign workers, among other illegal residents, who are slated for deportation.  Quite simply, despite all the emotional hype, their parents either arrived here in Israel illegally or overstayed their legal period of residency and then procreated "illegal" babies, as it were and, now with an Oscar, are seeking to stay against the law.

Seems the United States also faces this problem. As this Washingtoin Post story informs, one Juan Gomez has a job offer from J.P. Morgan Chase in New York. However, he faces deportation to Colombia, a country he hasn’t seen since he was 2 years old for in 2007, immigration agents in Miami took them to a detention center. The family had lost a years-long application struggle for political asylum and ignored multiple orders to leave. Although his parents did go back to Colombia, Juan managed to avoid that move and was allowed to stay, at least until he finished college. His permission to remain in the United States extends only through next spring. And the temporary work permit he holds as a student, an I-765 visa, is more common among dishwashers than merger-and-acquisition specialists at blue-chip financial firms.

He hopes the work permit will be renewed, but there are no guarantees. He is depending on the passage of the Dream Act which

would provide conditional permanent residency to certain illegal and deportable alien students who graduate from US high schools, who are of good moral character, arrived in the U.S. illegally as minors, and have been in the country continuously for at least five years prior to the bill's enactment.

The story quotes Roy Beck, executive director of NumbersUSA and a leading opponent of the Dream Act, who blames the choices his family made decades ago.

“The reason that people like him can make the claim they are in this tough situation is because his parents were allowed to break the law by holding a job for year after year,” Beck said. “He’s a very compelling case, but because he’s getting this job, there will be an American somewhere down the line who won’t get one.”

The introduction of that bill did provide a reprieve good for the two-year duration of that Congress. But the parents were put on a plane to Bogota, and Juan and his brother haven’t seen them since.

Here in Israel, the tactic of pressure works very well.  There's been a postponement of the deportation and Israel's media play it up.

The point is, though, that certain illegals merit sympathy and others, like residents of the HaYovel neighborhood in Eli or other sites in Judea and Samaria just are not afforded the same human feelings.

That's why I have trouble relating to 'humanists' and 'liberals' who are simply ideologically-driven activists, not objective rights promoters.

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It's Not About Israel

Der Spiegel carries a story about immigration fears.

For a change, it is not about criticism of Israel's policies regarding illegal infiltration from Africa via Egypt and Sinai into Israel.  In 2008, TIME reported on

200,000 foreign workers from East Asia, Africa and Latin America who have found their way to Israel. About half of them are illegal

and quoted a Noa Kaufman of the Israeli Children pressure group criticizing government policy.

A 2010 story on the deportion of illegal children quoted Sigal Rozen at the Hotline for Migrant Workers

and Noa Maiman, an actress who has been prominent in the campaign for the children, who described the decision was "cruel."

But the Der Spiegel story didn't focus on Israel.  It informed us that

Italian ministers now warn that if his Libyan government collapses, people will flow across the Mediterranean.

These officials were concerned

...that hundreds of thousands of immigrants could head for Europe. Italy's interior minister, ahead of an EU summit in Brussels, called on Thursday for European help in dealing with a looming "catastrophic humanitarian emergency."

...said Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini on Wednesday..."It is a Biblical exodus. It's a problem that no Italian should underestimate."

and there are other worried countries

"Germany, as the largest and most economically powerful country in Europe, has a special responsibility to act," said Monika Lüke, head of Amnesty International in Germany. "Germany has to finally end its obstructionist attitude regarding a common refugee policy in the EU."

I guess we cann be relieved?

At least they are not talking about "illegal settlements".


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There's a Problem

and it's not one with which only Israel has to deal.

Italian police have arrested hundreds of suspected illegal immigrants.

In a government clampdown, police arrested 383 people after a week-long operation stretching from northern Italy to Naples.

Those arrested came from Eastern Europe, Albania, Greece, North Africa and China, and face charges ranging from illegal entry into Italy to prostitution, drug trafficking and robbery.

Over fifty people were immediately taken to the border for expulsion.

and

Twenty-two Bangladeshis, who illegally migrated to Hyderabad and even secured ration and voter identity cards, were arrested by the city police here on Monday.

While some of them had been living here for years, a few arrived in the past six months, Commissioner’s Task Force DCP V.B. Kamalasan Reddy said. The arrests were made during the raids at Jirra, Muradnagar and Zebabagh in Asifnagar and Mir Alam Mandi in the old city in the backdrop of an alert that four Bangladeshi nationals were planning terror strikes in the city.

The Bangladeshis confessed to the police that they managed to sneak into India by bribing brokers at the bordering towns like Raj Sahi and Murshidabad.

and

More than 300 illegal immigrants arrested or deported in crackdown

Law enforcement agents rounded up or deported more than 300 illegal immigrants in the Los Angeles area during three weeks of raids that ended this week, immigration officials announced Friday.

The arrests were part of raids that were conducted across California, in which 905 illegal immigrants were arrested, officials said.

The majority of the 327 people who were arrested in the Los Angeles area were immigrants who had ignored final orders of deportation or who re-entered the United States after being deported, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) spokeswoman Tammy Wilson said.

About a quarter of the immigrants arrested in Southern California had criminal histories besides being in the country illegally, Wilson said.